Blew $80 on a soldering iron that literally fell apart

Picked up this cheap adjustable temp iron from an online flash sale last Tuesday. Third time using it the tip just snapped clean off while I was trying to desolder an old capacitor on a busted amp board. The heating element cracked too and now it's totally dead. Anyone else get burned by those generic no-name irons from sketchy websites?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephbutler13d ago

You said "the tip just snapped clean off" and that's exactly what happened to me with a similar cheap iron I got last year. I'm curious though, what temperature were you running it at when it broke? I found that the cheaper irons claim they go up to 480 degrees but they're actually lying, and cranking them past 350 makes the whole thing brittle. Also, did the tip look like it was screwed in or was it just pressed into the heating element? Most of those no-name ones use a really bad press-fit design that leaves the tip wobbly from day one, which probably explains why it snapped under any pressure.

the_sandra13d ago

Gotta wonder if the solder you were using had anything to do with it too. I've had some cheap lead-free stuff that was basically like trying to melt a rock, made me push way harder than I should have. Probably didn't help the tip situation any.